MARBLE MONTH

• Marbles must be in unbreakable containers, preferably plastic. Socks may not be used (to avoid use as a swinging weapon).

• Marbles dropped in classrooms or cafeteria will be confiscated and not returned.

• Students in grades 4 and 5 may play for keeps (winner gets the opponent's marble) if students agree before game. Grades 1, 2 and 3 may play only for fun.

• Marbles may not be thrown.

• Students may substitute another marble of like size and quality for favorite shooter if they lose in games of keeps.

• All marble play stops immediately at the bell.

The kids at Little Lake School in East Hemet fully embrace Marble Month. They should be leaders in reviving the quirky and endearing Hemet tradition.

During May, students at Little Lake gather at planters around trees, draw circles in the dirt and shoot marbles during games they create. Rules crafted to avoid hurt feelings and discipline incidents are followed.

“In this era of technology, this is fabulous,” said Kimberley Maywald, a Little Lake fourth-grade teacher who embraces Marble Month. “It’s fun to see them interacting and palling around while they play.”

I could find only three schools – Little Lake, Winchester and Whittier – that continue the Hemet schools’ tradition of more than half a century. The schools still allow students to go marble crazy for a month. Kids are not permitted to bring marbles to school the rest of the year.

Ramona and Bautista Creek schools dropped the program several years ago. Valle Vista Elementary School did not stage Marble Month this year because it was a disruption and created discipline problems last year.

I would love to see those the schools bring it back. Lori West, librarian at Little Lake School, agrees it is an important Hemet tradition.

“We we have so few things that are a continuity historically,” West said. “It’s hard to connect to the past.”

West joyously played during Marble Month while attending Hemet Elementary School from 1961 to 1966. Her four children played. Her grandson, Trevor West, now plays as a Little Lake fourth-grader.

I asked readers for remembrances of Marble Month. The more than 70 responses I received dated the playing days back to the early 1960s, a time I believe the event was established. Before then, they reported joyously playing all year long.

Several – including former Hemet Mayor Rob Lindquist, Edward Paul LaChappa and Ruthann Cutting – still have their childhood marble collections. Saved marbles were passed down to children.

Katie Johnson reported raiding the sizable collection of her father, Jim George, when she played at Whittier Elementary School in the 1980s. Her father, a popular postal service worker, was a red-hot player at Little Lake during the 1950s.

“I hope Little Lake always keeps it,” wrote Johnson, a fifth-grade teacher at the school. “The kids are surprisingly well-behaved at recess. They just sit quietly, huddled around their dirt circles, concentrating on the match. It’s so cool to witness.”

I watched fourth-graders play Thursday at Little Lake, where May is Marble Month. They truly were behaved and clearly loved the games they dreamed up. The only aspects they didn’t like were not being able to play the entire year and losing marbles when they compete for keeps.

“But you can win marbles,” said 9-year-old Chad Thomson, an avid player. “We like getting them.”

Fernando Betanzos, Little Lake’s principal, said he has not experienced discipline problems with Marble Month at the school or when he worked at Whittier Elementary. He likes allowing play just for one month.

“It makes it special,” he said. “It’s a good way to end the year.”

He said students have been good at following rules like keeping marbles in plastic boxes except when allowed at recess, only playing for keeps when all players agree and allowing the substitution of ordinary marbles when opponents win something cherished like a cat’s eye.

Jennifer Martin, principal at Valle Vista school, said Marble Month was canceled because of discipline problems such as altercations during games. She is willing to consider bringing marbles back in some non-disruptive form next year.

Maywald, the Little Lake teacher, said successfully staging Marble Month simply is a matter of strictly enforcing rules, especially one important concept.

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